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NorthWood students launch mental health campaign

Goshen News - 10/8/2021

Oct. 9—NAPPANEE — NorthWood High School students are sharing a message of hope with their peers and community through the launch of a new mental health awareness and anti-stigma campaign in partnership with Oaklawn Psychiatric Center.

The campaign, officially launched Friday morning at the school, is the brainchild of approximately 20 students in the school's community service class.

"It's prevalent in all of society, but it's viewed as something that shouldn't be talked about, and something that should be kept quiet," Kali Butler, a senior at the school and one of the campaign's co-leaders, said of the class's decision to choose mental health as the focus of their project. "I know that kids are struggling in our school, and it's affecting their work ethic, it's affecting their school work, their social life.

"And everyone struggles with it deep down, but I feel like our class, we all know someone, or we did struggle with it personally," she added. "So, just that idea and that concept of helping people and bringing awareness, we just took advantage of that right away when we heard the opportunity."

According to Butler, the group came up with the idea to focus on mental health after contacting Ashley Jordan, director of Acts of Service for the Community Foundation of Elkhart County.

"The class had reached out and needed some help with ideas for service projects, and so I spoke to the kids and said, 'You know, lets really hone in and figure out what you're passionate about,' and there were so many kids that said there was a real need to rally around mental health," Jordan said. "My job is to connect nonprofits and volunteers within the community, so I connected them with Kari Tarman at Oaklawn and said, 'Just run with this. Let the kids own this project, and see what can come of it.'

"And so here we are. I am so extremely proud of these kids and the movement that they're creating within NorthWood High School. It's just a powerful statement, and it empowers the kids to know that they can make a difference in the community."

Tarman, executive director of the Oaklawn Foundation, said she was 100% on board when the students pitched their project to her, and soon after the class had a $2,000 budget courtesy of the foundation to get their mental health PSA campaign up and running.

"So, they got to plan the budget, and they got to pick what they wanted to do within that budget," Tarman said.

According to Tarman, there are two components to the class project: one focuses on the school community and one on the community at large.

"At the school, students will distribute wristbands with ribbons representing five different mental health issues that young people commonly face: depression, anxiety, self-harm, eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder," Tarman said. "They'll also display posters with positive mental health messages and partner with their school's Bring Change to Mind chapter to feature teacher testimonials about mental health issues that they've experienced."

For its community focus, the class also painted over 1,000 rocks with positive messages to place around the community, including at Oaklawn, with the hashtag #NorthWoodCares.

"Not everybody knows about mental health and not everybody thinks about it," said junior Cole Davies, another co-leader of the project. "It's one of those things people are scared to talk about, but through this, we want to shine a light on it and help people open up."

Tarman offered a similar sentiment when expressing her support for the class campaign.

"The focus of mental health, it is so important," Tarman said. "I mean, we're coming out of a pandemic, and mental health has really been brought to the forefront in the pandemic as many people felt isolated and uncertainty around the future. It brings out a ton of feelings.

"So, any time that we as a community can recognize that and rally around it in a positive way really breaks down the stigma," she added. "And seeing all the kids out front getting their bracelets, even though it's a deep topic, it's nice to see them excited to talk about difficult things, and realize that they're all on the same team, and that if we work together as a community it really leads to greater change."

Butler, who has a passion for mental health and plans to study child psychology at Purdue next year, agreed.

"I'm just hoping that the stigma is broken that mental health isn't something that you should talk about, and it makes you weak," Butler said. "Reaching out for help isn't making you weak. It's a very courageous thing to do. Helping yourself is not something that should be viewed as negative. It influences others to get the help that they need ... and it comforts and reassures everyone else that they can take that step as well."

John Kline can be reached at john.kline@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240315. Follow John on Twitter @jkline_TGN.

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